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FinalCall.com News
World News
Gaza's Traumatized Children
By Delinda C. Hanley
Updated May 21, 2009 - 11:48:03 AM
Gaza's Traumatized Children Can't Wait For Borders to Open and Violence to End
As soon as Israeli authorities granted a Gaza entry permit to Bill Corcoran, president and CEO of American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA), he was on the next plane out. When he returned to Washington, D.C., still stunned by the devastation he had seen in Gaza, Mr. Corcoran spoke at an informal lunch co-hosted by Foundation for Middle East Peace and the Middle East Institute.
Mr. Corcoran entered northern Gaza through the Erez crossing. As he drove into what was once a middle-class residential neighborhood of Beit Hanoun, he recalled, “I was looking at the aftermath of a tsunami. Two-story homes that you or I would have lived in comfortably were totally demolished. Their former occupants are living in tents in their rubble, with no water, sewage or electricity.”
Nearby is the American International School, once the hallmark of sophistication in Gaza, where strong leaders for the future were nurtured and taught in English. “I was shocked,” Mr.Corcoran said. “The school is a 100 percent loss.”
Further south he saw government ministries and factories—vital elements for Gaza's future—destroyed. Metal workshops, which Israel claimed could be used to make missiles, were flattened, as were the carpentry and masonry workshops next door. “All eight of Gaza's cement factories in every location were destroyed,” Mr.Corcoran said. “I saw a cement truck that was turned over on end and then run over by Israeli tanks.”
This wasn't just collateral damage or wanton destruction, Mr. Corcoran observed: “This was deliberate de-development. We saw it repeatedly. Business is completely finished. The industrial spine of Gaza is broken.”
While many Gazans who lost their homes have moved in with relatives, others have created a series of tent camps in their demolished neighborhoods, perhaps 50 tents in a settlement. “They're clean. They have the basics. But it is the middle of winter in Gaza, with temperatures from 40 to 42 Fahrenheit. There was a savage rain storm when I was there. Imagine living in a tent and being exposed to that,” Mr. Corcoran said.
“A number of people told me, ‘I feel like this is 1948 all over again.' They'd reached some level of success, and now they have to start over again.”
Al Quds Hospital is almost totally ruined. A white phosphorous bomb destroyed the administration building. The top floors of the children's wing and the intensive care unit were wrecked, as was the warehouse. Doctors are still using the bottom floor and working by candlelight, as water drips through the ceilings.
The sewage system in Gaza is destroyed and the stench is awful, Mr. Corcoran said. Israel's attacks caused $8 million damage to an already-decrepit water and sanitation system. Israeli authorities are not allowing in the steel pipes and cement needed for repairs because those are not considered humanitarian aid. Reconstruction cannot begin until fighting subsides.
“Eventually we can help Gazans rebuild, but this war will have two lasting effects on the children,” Mr.Corcoran warned. For nearly two years ANERA has partnered with a Canadian program to help traumatized 8- to 14-year-old children cope with distress caused by poverty, uncertainty, isolation and violence, which affected 60 percent of children. According to the program's lead psychologist, 100 percent of Gaza's children have now been traumatized by war.
Mr. Corcoran shared one example with his audience. “We delivered school bags, purchased in the West Bank, to a group of preschool children, 35 out of 85 of whom had lost a parent or a home. We wanted to pay some attention to these kids, to give them something they could hold onto. Not one laughed or smiled when they got their bag. They actually backed away from me. They're afraid of men.
“That night there was thunder and lightning,” Mr. Corcoran added. “No one got any sleep. Every parent was up comforting children who were afraid the bombs were back. There are major psycho-social aspects of this war.”
ANERA has been asked to add to medical relief shipments a nasal spray, which is designed to stop children from wetting their beds. Gazan parents say they cannot keep up with their children's nightly terrors.
Children are also suffering from malnutrition—and that didn't start on Dec. 27, Mr. Corcoran noted. Nothing was permitted into Gaza in November and December 2008, and children were deprived of food. “The Al-Direh Hotel in Gaza, where I stayed, had fruit and vegetables, but it all came from Israel and it's priced too high for the average family in Gaza,” Corcoran said. “Fields and fruit trees were destroyed. Malnutrition is spiraling and there is no sign of improvement.”
ANERA now has a staff of 20 in Gaza, many of them parents who spend every night comforting their children. “They're shell-shocked and needy themselves,” Corcoran related. “They've lost friends and relatives, and they admit they find it difficult to focus at work. They told me, ‘We're all a bit foggy.'”
Not one of ANERA's seasoned staff of 40 experts in the West Bank is allowed into Gaza to help their co-workers there.
Israel is now permitting only basic humanitarian supplies, food and medicine into Gaza. The list is limited (macaroni was forbidden in one shipment without explanation). John Ging, head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza, says Israel is allowing only about 135 trucks a day to enter Gaza, when 500 are needed.
The political situation in Gaza is also difficult, Corcoran said. International aid agencies seeking to deliver supplies in a non-partisan way have made it clear to Gaza's Hamas-led government that they will not be interfered with or intimidated. Agencies are obeying the no contact with Hamas rule. They couldn't coordinate with the ministries anyway—they've been destroyed. In the past, agencies coordinated with Israelis; now they work with the U.N.
ANERA staff has been heartened by a large response from ordinary Americans: fund-raisers in schools and houses of worship, donations, e-mails, and offers for medical missions. One donor paid for 10 chickens, a rooster and chicken feed to give 50 families, who are now breeding poultry and harvesting eggs. The U.S. government gave ANERA a $1 million grant for food relief, and ANERA may be permitted to use a previous $50 million grant for water and sanitation projects for infrastructure repairs in Gaza.
ANERA is using these funds to pay for its vital Milk for Preschoolers program, for prepackaged food parcels (both currently being purchased and assembled in the West Bank) and medical aid, as well as for plastic coverings to replace blown-out windows and patch holes in roofs and walls.
With Gaza no longer in the headlines, and the violence having subsided, but not stopped, Corcoran emphasized that 1.5 million Gazans still need help. “They thanked me for coming,” he said, “because they said they feel forgotten and alone.”
“How can we fix this?” someone from the audience asked. This is a real, ongoing crisis, Corcoran replied—a “perfect storm.” There is paralysis with new governments in Israel and the United States, and a divided Palestinian government. The world faces an economic crisis but donors are willing to rebuild. When will the environment be conducive? Everyone is waiting.
But Gaza can't wait.
When asked why on earth Corcoran took this job, he said he fell in love with the people, culture of hospitality, and religions in the Middle East. “Palestine is the key to peace in this region,” he said. “My grandmother lived under occupation in Ireland. I have a sense of what it does to families, generation after generation. You can't have peace without solving this fundamental issue.”
When asked what three things Americans can do to help Gaza recover, Corcoran answered:
• Focus on the plight of children. Everyone can identify with a child. Help improve their physical and mental welfare.
• Help Gazans rebuild their own future. Open the borders to building supplies so that they are not a welfare culture forever.
• Bring about a political solution. Peace with Israel would help economically. Gazans used to travel into Israel to work. Garments sewn in homes, and other cottage industries, once flowed into Israel. This nearby labor source was good for Israelis. Restarting this is necessary for the future.
“The status quo is inhuman,” Mr. Corcoran said. “It's not acceptable.”
He ended with one final story: “One gentleman I met told me his home had been damaged by an American-made missile. He asked me, ‘Do you want to take it back home with you?'”
(Delinda C. Hanley is news editor of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.)
